Coastal northwestern Greece and the Pindos mountains 2011
In may this year, I visited coastal northwestern Greece together with fellow herper and conservation biology consulting college Mattias Stahre, from here on also referred to as the Peacook and Fåkkel. This fieldtrip was the second one to Greece for both of us. Mattias and me share a passion for everything reptilian-amphibian but he also has a fascination for Arachnids.
Our main goal was to find a range of snakes and other herps living in the area close to the village of Parga by the Mediterranean and the two viper species (along with other herps) that occur in the Pindos mountain range.
The day before departure I spent the night in my friend Börjes house. This procedure has become somewhat of a tradition whenever I go abroad. I was in deep sleep when called me and said that he had arrived two and a half –three hours early! I got up and we went to Arlanda Airport where we had to stay in the main hall for three hours before checking in a passing security!
I slept during the flight down to Preveza and after collecting our luggage hopped on the bus for a 1 ½ hour drive to our hotel. Our first objective was to get a few beers and to rent a car. We stopped at the hotel bar, had a few Ouzo and beers. Then we walked down towards the center of the village, shared a kilo lamb chops in a restaurant. Of couse we had a few more beers and more Ouzo with the meat.
The view from the restaurant was pretty nice. You can see the castle of Parga on the top of the mountain.
Some of you may be familiar with the Peacocks face but for those of you that aren’t this is the disturbing view I had to put up with almost every waken hour for two weeks!
We where fairly drunk when we found an Avis office that was both open and with the personnel actually on site! Fåkkel was just about to sign the contract when I reminded him about the fact that he wasn’t allowed to book a car on the internet because he haven’t had his drivers license for a full year. When the man behind the counter saw the date of issue of the Peacocks license he shock his head and said – I cannot give you a car! We thanked him for his time and were walking towards the door when he asked us to stop! He begged us to wait a minute while he was going to check something. After a short conversation on the phone with his boss, he changed his mind and said. – Okay I can give you a car. He was about to give us the key when we said that we couldn’t drive because we had been downing beer and Ouzo. He looked at us with a surprised face and said – It’s okay as long as you don’t drive completely shit faced! Needless to say we declined his offer and asked him to deliver the car to our hotel the day after.
The following morning after we had picked up the car from a nervous young guy. The fist thing we had to do was to get some gas because in Greece rental cars are delivered with an empty tank! We also got some important gorceries like Gin, tonic water and beer. We went home to stove our liquids into the fridge before driving the 10 km’s to Kalodiki wetlands. We parked the car on a hill maybe 25 meter above the western shore of the lake. It took us roundabout two minutes to find our first herp, a blind snake. The little bugger was completely impossible to photograph so we left it to its own business very quickly! Next find was a male Nose horned viper (Vipera ammodytes meridionalis).
We walked down to the water where green frogs always seem to be abundant. I am not sure what species this is but my best guess would be either Rana esculenta or Rana lessonae.
This is a view of the habitat where we would make more interesting finds. The picture is taken from the brink of the small lake and you may see parts of the small stonewalls along which we made most of the finds.
Before going home we decided to check out another place on the western side that I visited a few times the year before and where various herps were found. We were actually hoping to find Grass snakes (Natrix natrix persa) at this site but instead we found more frogs and a bunch of European pond terrapins (Emys orbicularis).
After this successful first day we returned to the hotel for a few cold ones and some Gin and Tonic. Once again we got a little bit smashed.
The following morning we headed out to Kalodiki wetlands to find some colubrids and tortoises. We parked the car close to the main road at the southern tip of the lake and walked on small dirt roads down towards the water. We found this European glass lizard (Ophisaurus apodus) resting at the edge of a big bush when we were taking a short cut between two trails. I really like these Anguids. They never try to bite even though they probably could pack a nasty punch.
After our photo shoot we continued towards some of the green meadows at the southeastern edge of the wetlands. We reached it and despite a quite ambitious search we only came up with the tail of what was probably a Balkan whip snake (Hierophis gemonensis) and a dead adult Monpellier snake (Malpolon monspessulanus insignitus). We continued to walke along the road and after a few minutes this Nose horned viper (Vipera ammodytes meridionalis) was found while flipping rocks.
After putting our cameras away, we continued along the road and shortly thereafter the Peacock found this Four-lined snake (Elaphe quatuorlineata) a meter and a half up a steep natural stonewall. It was clinging on to some vegetation and bushes.
Fåkkel seized the opportunity to display one of his strange and absurd behaviors. I am not sure about the purpose of this but I suspect it has something to do with reproduction. Maybe the objective of the display is to attract females?
After a while we reached a dead end where a farmer had closed of the public road by building a cattle pen! There were signs of cows inside and the farmer had put much effort to make the fence hard to pass by using barbwire. Because Fåkkel suffers from cow phobia we turned back. I got a few pics of this Dalmatian lizard (Algyroides nigropunctata) and slow worm (Anguis fragilis)
Once again, we reached the pasture where we had found the dead Montpellier snake and Mattias discovered another Four-lined snake. This one had found a hollow rock and was resting within it. We tried to carefully extract it but it eventually crept deeper into the rock and disappeared. We named the rock, the Magic rock! We started walking towards the car and found a Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata) resting on the dirt road. Later on, we would have more interesting encounters with not so shy individuals of this species.
Halfway through the photo shoot, it started to rain. The dreadful Sir Peacock made his way to the car while I stayed to get a couple of more pics. We drove back in pooring rain.
During the first days of our stay at the hotel we had got familiar with the personnel there and told them we had come to Greece. This evening, when we went down to the hotel restaurant for a snack and a few beers we walked towards our favorite table and noticed a small reservation sign stating that the table was reserved for the Snake Hunters! When we sat down they asked if we wanted our normal dish (eggs, bacon and sausages) that they now had decided to rename and call snake eyes!
The day after we found Nose horned vipers, Balkan whip snakes, slow worms, European pond terrapins, green frogs on the western side of the wetlands. The only pic I got was of this Dalmatian algyroides.
Instead we drove to the eastern part of the lake for a quick look that resulted in a few more turtles and frogs along with a Balkan whip snake that disappeared faster than a pay check! We decided to call it a day and return the day after.
On the morning the next day we were back at the same site and when we had parked the car Mattias just swung his door open and rushed out. I heard him shout –This is F****** absurd. When I looked he was standing there with a larger Four-lined snake than the one we had found the day before! He had spotted it just a few meters from the car when he opened the door. What are the odds?
After posing for a few pics the snake got fed up with the two morons and climbed a tree.
We continued our search and just a minutes after leaving the snake to it’s own business we found a couple of nice Herrman’s tortoise (Testudo herrmanni) that had parked inside a bush. These animals always put a big smile on my face when I find them. They usually just take notice of my presence and then continue with their business, which on 98% of the occasions I have found them has, been either grazing or mating.
After a look through of the adjacent meadows and pastures we decided to drive north on the eastern shore. We parked by a barn. Close by, there was a deep ditch. We looked down into it and realized that an Emys orbicularis was trapped in a small pool of water. The edges of the ditch were very steep and covered with thick thorny bushes. Thus I could not simply jump down into it. Instead, I crawled through a concrete pipe to get some pictures of the turtle, which by the way was reluctant to pose and didn’t really like modeling, hence the crappy image.
The following day, we had just arrived to the wetlands and Mattias was a looking around while I was putting on my gear. I was just getting ready when I heard a surprised – What a **** is that? When I took a look we realized it was a Sand boa (Eryx jaculus)! The snake had a huge scar on the back near its neck and had survived a vicious attack from what I believe must have been a bird of prey.
We walked down and were looking for more herps when this female Nose horned viper was found. She was basking in a sunspot under an olive tree. Although not very apparent form the images, she was very well camouflaged!
While I was taking pictures of the viper a Herrmann’s tortoise came walking along the stone wall. It stopped just a few meters away from me. I could not let this opportunity pass so I stopped taking pics of the viper photo to work with the tortoise for a while.
Later that evening we, sat down with the bartender in the hotel restaurant and his son for a while. We showed some pictures and talked about the biology of some of the species we had found.
The day after we got up early. Had breakfast and packed the car and headed out towards Metsovo. We wanted to go to the mountains to find Adders (Vipera berus), Greek Meadow vipers (Vipera ursinii graeca) and fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra). We stopped 20 km from Metsovo to pee and this is how the landscape looks there. Unfortunately the highway destroys the view a bit.
In a pile of rocks we saw some small Balkan wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii). We got some quick shots before we continued to drive towards Metsovo.
In Metsovo checked in at Hotel Victoria and paid 55 € a night for a double room, but that also included a very good breakfast buffet. We booked the room for three days. Here is a nice view of the landscape and the village of Metsovo.
I also used my super-duper telephoto lens to capture this hen eating horse poo from the balcony.
The day after we drove to a nearby village to go hiking for meadow vipers. We ended up at the end of the main road of the village. When we stepped out this woman, her husband and their friend welcomed us.
The woman was of Greek origin and talked very little English. Luckily she was married to a German man and hence they spoke german. We explained what we wanted to do but they said that there were no snakes in the area. We explained that the species we wanted to find only is found at high altitudes and we got directions on how to get up to the mountaintops surrounding the village. We also got some shots of the couples house house and beautiful surroundings. On their property they had an old chapel that apparently was at least 200 years old.
Once again the Peacock surprised me by displaying a set of interesting behaviors. I have no idea about what the purpose of these behaviors are but I hope it is to ridicule, mock and abuse Christianity and religion by large.
We headed out towards a part of the village where it was easy to hike up the mountain and when we parked the car an old man came walking out from his house. He was curious about us and we explained what we were doing before heading up the mountainside.
About halfway up the mountain we found a few Yellow-bellied toads (Bombina varegiata) roaming around and mating in a small ditch. When a predator or nosy herper disturbs these small critters they turn their yellow belly up to warn that they are non-palatable.
There were also a group of Balkan wall lizards (Podarcis erhardii) roaming around there. From their appearance and behavior we could identify at least two males that were competing and having territorial fights. We stayed there for a while and it was great fun to see the males wink and chase each other around!
Male 1
Male 2
Female
We continued to climb up the mountain and stopped a few times to give up. I think I gave up a total of three times! Sometimes we also admired the landscape during these “giving up” stops.
However, both me and Fåkkel are stubborn like donkeys and we continued up the mountain until we reached a tree that stood alone maybe 75-100 meters from the top. The elevation was 1600 meters and we had made a vertical climb of about 550-600 meters. The whole walk took 3 ½ hours. The terrain was not to bad to walk but there were talus slopes and places where the mountainside was very steep with loose substratum. We ended up on our rear end or other less cushioned parts of our bodies a few times.
Finally at the top, the biotope looked very barren to say the least. Its hard to imagine that anything can live there.
We stayed and searched for 1 ½ hours without getting positive ID of any snakes. We saw a few lizards that were probably Sand Lizards (Lacerta agilis) but I couldn’t get any confirmed ID of them. We were quite exhausted and when it started to rain we decided to return to the car because the dark sky indicated it would continue raining for the rest of the day. Our decision turned out to be a good one. It took us an hour and a half to get back to the car. We were completely soaked when we reached it. The walk down was not fun at all. Steep slopes, wet grass and rocks isn’t the optimal conditions for hiking. I think it was pure luck that we didn’t slip and break our necks!
We were a bit moody about the failure to find a meadow viper and we got even more moody after seeing Finland beating the crap out of our beloved national hockey team in the world championships the same evening! Luckily we could empty one of the bottles of whisky in the hotel bar for consolation.
Next day the sky over the mountains that we had climbed the day before were still very dark so we decided to visit the southern parts of the Pindos mountains national park to look for adders (Vipera berus) instead. We headed out with the car and drove northwards. The weather in the mountains had been rainy for a while so the roads at some places had been undermined and collapsed. To be honest I am far from sure the one lane that hadn’t collapsed was safe to drive, but what can you do when you must find that special snake? The pictures you see here is not from one of the worst ones.
The Peacock of course displayed one of his odd behaviors. I have to say that this one was particularly maladapted considering the situation. I was kind of wondering what he was going to do if it would give away? Would he start flapping his arms?
After an hour and a half we passed a small pond. We could hear frogs calling and stepped on the breaks! We parked and got out to find a beautiful little place. We decided to stay for a while and have look around.
Of course there were green frogs in the water. Can you see it?
We also found a sign that made complete sense to the Peacock!
Newts were very abundant in the small pond and we found both high numbers of Alpine newts (Triturus alpestris).
We also found Great crested newts (Triturus cristatus) and a marbled newt that we cannot identify, although we suspect it is a T cristatus. Help with identifying it is appreciated.
After poking around for an hour or so, we continued to drive towards the national park but we were concerned about the weather situation. The sky was very dark and there were no signs of it breaking up. After approximately half an hours drive, the rain started to poor down. We stopped and evaluated our options. We concluded that the chances of finding any adders this day were very small. Therefore we returned to the pond and found two more species, namely common toads (Bufo bufo) and yellow-bellied toads. After a while the raining became even worse and we decided to head back to Metsovo before all the roads were flushed away. When we were getting close to Metsovo we saw something that made us very happy. Walking across the road was a Fire Salamander (Salamandra salamandra)!
We escorted the little fellow across the road and drove back to Metsovo. From the hotel balcony we could se the clouds pound against the mountainsides and unload!
We checked the weather forecast for the next days and it wasn’t looking pretty. We decided not to prolong our stay in the mountains and head back to the coast without finding any of the Viper species that made us go there. Making that decision was not fun, but considering the weather situation, it was probably the correct one. We drove back to Parga the day after.
During our drive back we discovered that the gas meter that had barely moved at all the day before displayed a behavior so strange that it can only be compared to the behavior of the peacock! When we started the drive it said quarter full but it fell un-proportionally fast. The meter said empty when we got of the highway and drove into a small village. We found a small coffee shop and stepped in. Inside we met Elias, a Greek farmer in his early 60’s that talked rudimentary German. Despite this he succeeded to tell us that he had lived five years in Germany. We were not the least surprised by this because all Greeks have lived 5-10 years in Germany. Anyway, Elis drove us back to the car with his pickup. Fåkkel rode on the back and I don’t envy him for that. It was not a safe drive…
Back at our car I explained to Elias that we needed to get to a gas station to buy gas. He offered me a ride to the next village 11 km away. The drive that followed will remain in my memory for the rest of my life. I was convinced that I would die!
Elias was a friendly guy. So friendly that knew almost everyone and he constantly honked the horn and shouted to everyone he met. When he was not peering after friends at the roadside he was talking extremely loudly to drown out the sound from the motor that he kept roaming high all the time. Elias must have seen the fear in my face but that didn’t stop him from telling stories and laughing. I am not lying if I say that his eyes were on the road for 5 % of the time, at the most! Moreover, Elias liked to take corners in high speed and the tires were screaming more or less in each turn. He also had the habit of driving in the wrong lane to be able to take the corners tightly in high speed. More often than not there was zero or low visibility! To be honest I do not understand how that man could have survived for so long! Eventually we got to the gas station where they found a jug and filled it up.
The greek people are amazing and I am astonished about the trust they have in other people. I didn’t pay for the jug and didn’t have to leave anything to ensure that I would return it. They simply just trusted that I would stick to my word! Things like this happened several times during our trip. At one point a shop owner left us completely alone in his shop for five-ten minutes. If we had been idiots we could have stolen everything including the cash machine!
Back at the car Elias refused to accept any money for helping us! We drove down to the gas station, returned the jug and filled the car up.
On our way home we stopped at a wetland that looked promising. We found hundreds or even thousands of frogs and a snake skeleton, but that was it. Back in Parga, the Peacock fell asleep in the middle of the day. He had been feeling ill for most of the trip and now he couldn’t fight it any longer.
The day after it took Mattias a long time to feel sure that he could manage a day in the field. We went to Kalodiki and parked at the southern end of the lake. We had just got out of the car when I decided to rip apart an old beehive. Inside it I found a Common toad.
We walked down to the meadow where we found the dead Montpellier snake. We decided to check the Magic rock and once again there was a snake inside it! This time it was a Dahl’s whip snake (Platyceps najadum). With my thick leather gloves on my hands, I got a hold of the tail and removed a rock that was covering a part of the body. A scorpion was taking refuge under the rock. I grabbed it with my free hand and asked Fåkkel to get a container for the scorpion (we wanted to get pics of it). He went to get it and while he was away the snake started to struggle. I focused on the snake and because of the gloves my ability to feel was compromised. Consequently I dropped the scorpion without noticing it and it managed to sting me in the knee! After, that I had to let go of the struggling snake to make sure I didn’t cause it any harm. I was a bit pissed of because of the caveat with the scorpion and that I had to let go of the snake! I happen to like that particular species a lot and really want some pics of it.
While recovering from the pain of loosing the snake and the sting a Dutch couple came walking around the dirt road. They wanted to have a look at Nutrias (Myocastor coypus). We pointed out a few of these beasts for them and to thank us, they later showed us this V ammodytes.
On the way back to the car I also got some shots of the exceedingly common Dalmatian lizards.
One species that turned up fairly often but more usual than not disappeared before I could photograph them was the Balkan green lizard. However, there were a few incidences when I actually got some decent pictures. While photographing the female on the pictures below I heard something coming scurrying along the road. I turned my head and saw a huge male L trilineata running towards me. It passed me in high speed and when it had passed Mattias that was five meters further up the road from me the lizard jumped the breaks. It looked at us and decided that we were not to be trusted. It moved towards a dense thicket on the side of the road where it sat for a while watching us. Then it dove into the bushes and disappeared. We didn’t see it again.
Earlier during our trip we had got positive ID of both Balkan wall lizards (P taurica) and a Grass snake (Natrix natrix persa) but we were unable to get pictures of it. However, the luck was about to turn and when it was only two more days left in the field, we eventually found both species. It was pretty simple to get a few acceptable shots of the lizard but I had to exercising extreme patience and some time to get decent pictures of the snake.
We also got positive ID on a live Malpolon the same day! Last year they were abundant and we saw them every day. For some reason they were much more hard to find this year. We decided to go back to the same spot the day after, our last day with the car, to try get some pictures of Montpellier snakes.
When we arrived the day after, there was almost no reptile activity. It was also the hottest day during our trip. The fact is that not even turtles or frogs were very active so I ended up photographing cows in pure boredom!
We were leaving the meadow and walking towards our car when Mattias stumbled over one more Sand boa! This one was larger than the one we found before and didn’t have any visible scars.
This find encouraged us to continue for a while longer but when Fåkkel felt dizzy and almost fainted while we were walking along the dirt road, we decided to call it a day. While driving back to the hotel a Montpellier snake crossed the road a few meters in front of our car! We didn’t have a chance in hell to get hold of it and this of course resulted in a cascade of profanities inside the small car. The drive back to the hotel was slow and when we got into our room my weird but brave travel companion felt so ill that he had to go to bed. The same evening I took some shots of a Dalmatian lizard that lived on the compound.
The following days Fåkkel spent a lot of time sleeping and I went field herping in some olive plantations and meadows close to the hotel without finding anything more than a few lizards and about two billion cats! Eventually I resided to photographing this bugger on our balcony!
The End!
Sat 4 Jun - 21:05
